Improvement in the construction of the mouth-piece of mail-bags



fU'NrTED STAT-Es JAMES SELLERS AND .ABRAHAM L. PENNOCK, OF PHILADELPHIA,'PENNSYLE A 'PATENT OFFICE.

VANIA.

TNPRovENENT 1N THE CONSTRUCTION 0E THE MOUTH-PIECE 0E NAIL-meiste.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No; 1,633, dated June 12,1.840.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, JAMES SELLERS and ABRAHAM L. PENNooK, of the cityof Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new anduseful Mode of Constructing Mouth-Pieces for Mail-Bags, Traveling- Bags,and other Analogous Articles, which mouth-pieces are to be usedinsteadof the chains and staples, clasps, and other means now in use.

Our mode of making such mouth-pieces we modify in various ways, but ineach of them the mouth-piece consists of three or more pieces or sides,so arranged that two or more of them, which must be inflexible,connected by a single fastening, confine the remainder. If formed ofthree pieces or sides, two of them are of wood, metal, or other inexible material, hinged or joined together bya iiexible connection, and oneof them of a flexible ma-4 teriah If formed of four or more pieces orsides, all of them are made of an inflexible material hinged or joinedtogether by a flexible connection, or at least so many of them as arerequisite to confine eectually the mouth of the bag when closed. Whenflexible pieces are employed, they are to be contained, when the mouthis closed, between other pieces which are inflexible.

Vhen our mouth-pieces form a figure not exceeding four sides, twoopposite sides are to beunited for the purpose of fastening the whole.In figures of six sides, ,when all are external, the two middle piecesAare to be united. Y In figures where all the sides except two yareincluded betweeny or held confined by two external or controllingpieces,these controlling-pieces are to be united, and 'in' radiatinggures the pieces composing alternate sets are also to be united. In eachcase this union is to be eected by some means appropriate to thepurpose, and by which a catch, lock, or other device for securing themouth may be attached. Such means may consist of plates projecting fromthose pieces lin a line coinciding with the face-line of such pieces,and a hasp to confine them, thehasp being -secured at one end by a hingeand at the other held dow-n by the shackle of a padlock or other catchpassing over such hasp and through one or more of the projecting plates;

or when the connection is effectedby the union required catch or lock.VWe believe such a mouth-piece is altogether new, it being-sub- -n lstantially different from` the ordinary bagclasp, which consists of twoarched pieces.

hinged at their extremities. Y

In illustration of this improvement the following plans are given: Anyof the forms of mouth-piece described may be attachedv to Y bags havingtheir openingsat the end, and

several of them to bags of other kinds.. In the latter Vcase such.adaptation `is stated.

Further varieties, but ,involving the same principles, might be given,but these will fully. exemplify our invention. The bags are sev-f erallyattached to the mouth-pieces bynail-4 ing, riveting, sewing, orotherwise, as may be most convenient and appropriate.

desired to secure the mouth of the bag. They side, orv a portion of thebag itself may be'used forl this purpose.

the vmouth is shut, and to beheldthere by the the other.

Fig. l shows the bag as closed, and Figf2;

as open.

In adjusting the bag tothe mouthfpiece it would be well to have a plaitin the former at the end next the hinge corresponding with the fold atthe end next the fastening, both,

for vsymmetry and in View of a l consequent of two pieces only, theligament, when other convenience does not forbid, may be astaple -vfastened to one piece and passing sufficientlyl through the lother toadmit of attaching'thev are also connected'at this end bya leather orother flexible piece CZ cl, forming the third M t Such piece is intendedto i be folded in between the two other `pieces when compression' of,theI includingsides, or by a pin or studprojecting from one of theinf-V. cluding'sides, with a corresponding cavity in convenience. Inthat case thehinge may be f, made so vas to separate into twoparts an dthnsadrnit the bagtoopen .its fullextent.

Figs. 3 and 4 show the mouth-piece in the form which we denominate thequadrangle. In making our mouth-pieces under this modification we takefour pieces of wood or metaltwo of them a a, longer than the other two bb. They are connected with each other at theQen'dsin. the way necessaryto ftheclosing or opening of the bag by hinges, for which the bag itselfmay be used if suitable, it being proper, in order that the sides of themouth-piece should, be preserved in a fixed relation to each other whenclosed, that sti hinges,bywhich we mean hinges moving only in onedirection, should be used near the middle of the mouth-piece. In thearrangement of the pieces-the longer and shorter alternate, so 'that'when the mouth-piece is open a parallelogram is exhibited, as in Fig. 3.When it is closed, the two longer pieces overlapping a staple c on onepiece and a hole d in the other furnish ainode of fastening by means ofa padlock; or platesattached to the inner sidesofy those piecesprojecting above the top and perforated above the hasp or yoke--whichshould: be made to confine them so as to receive a padlockfurnish asimilar mode of fastening, or.l a staple on one and a catch or lock onthe other the means of yimmediately fastening them.

IfY some iiexibilityis desired iu the mouthpiece, the overlapping may bedispensedwith and the opposite sides made equal. In such case, if twoopposite sides are securely fastened; near the middle joint, the hingesmay beof such kind as to allow of motion in difl ferent directions. Y y

A quadrangular mouth-piece, as above'described, maybe attached to theend ofA bags, to the side ofi-cylindrical bags, or to saddlebags. In thelatter case it will be convenient to give the mouth-piece acurvaturesuited to the position ofv the bag when in use, elongatingl the upperportion, and should` the hingesbe of` suchkind-as not to prevent thearcs which are unconfined by the fastening fromseparating, a stud'project-ing from one arc and passing intoa corresponding cavity in theother arc may be used for that purpose.

rIlhe form which-we call the ,hexagon requires six pieces-.- If theendpieces fold so as to be contained between the middle pieceswithoutpassing each other, the hexagon must 'necessar-ily be irregular.Figs. 5 and 6 exhibit a liexagon of this` description. Two of the piecesd a. are long and'four of nearly half the length of these, as b b,hinged so as to moveonlyin one plane and so as-to suittheir folding withthe longer pieces on the outside, the `shorter between them, and thatwhen open they may exhibit the above gure. The bag is fastened bysecuring the two outerA pieces together-in any of the modesabovedescribed.

Figs. 7 and 8 showa hexagon of like construction, except that forthe twoinflexible pieces (marked'b b) in Figs. 5and6, and immediatelyconnected-with lone of the long pieces tach them requires.

f mouth-piece.

two equivalent flexible pieces d dare Vsubst-ituted. In this arrangementthe bag, iffitwzwill be convenient to do so, maybe used to supmeans offastening. As this staple will not be sufficient to keep the twoportions or sidesk Vof-the mouth-piece in their proper relation toeachother, iniorder to attain this, one of the two portions of themouth-piece may overlap the'o'ther, or studs, as before described, nl ay-be used.

Figs. 9 and l0 exhibit another modification of thehexagon arrangedwithparticular erence to being attached-t0 saddle-bags.` We y make the endpieces afa a to fold obliqllely Vto the edge of the middle pieces bb,and* on;`

such an angle as the gorecto which'weat- A curvature is given=tothe-middle pieces, the upper of which maybe slightly elongated; At d d,wherethe endif pieces are hingedtogether, their shape isreot.` Theirotherextremity e eis of auch? anangle as willl conform to the shapeofYthev gore c. le connect these pieces together` `at d by a sli hinge, andwe connect thorn to the middle pieces b bby a hinge f f,

angular.

mitting of motion in two directions, which we construct as follows: Wetake alinkrof".

metal in the form of a rectangular triangle,

and we make the twolegs of this trianglethe 'i Yaxes of two plates-whichform the leavesthe hinge. Joining the middle andfend l by such atriangle, We have a connection-fhl` lowing of thenecessary motion.

which the endpieces are-attachedfarelma'de to coincide with the outsideedge ofthe mid# dle pieces and bag, and the.` endpiecesare; p Vmade tolie between the links, whichconlneA y them firmly when the mouth isclosed. staple g on the lower middlepie'ce passing through an aperturein the upper furnishes? the means offastening and completes the@ To theedges of the pieces; of l `leather which formthebag, gores inthe fornitiof isosceles triangles, at thel distance apart ofe the length ofthemiddle vpieces and eachlof whose basesis equal to the length of twoendVpieces, are tobe attached, or thereisto equivalent constructionV of thebag. These gores are made tol fold inward: Wfhelrexf",` tended, theirbases with theV edges of the up,V

per and lower port-ions of the. bag contained between-them exhibit theform` of aparallel i yogram, or nearly so. To the margin of the` figurethus presented the mouth-piece isfto'be attached.

Instead-of a hingefm-medY by thetriangular@ link above described, ahinge having for its axesa. rod bent at rightA angles (represented ybythe letter L) may be used; A- 1oepl1inge` may also befused', or thebag-itself; when-.the material is suitable, may be employedWo? Thelegs-wf l form the connection, as represented in Fig. ll. In thesecases, in order to prevent the upper and lower pieces from changingtheir proper relation to each other, and thus admit of access to thebag, we use pins or studs ct a, attached to the lower middle piece andentering into holes prepared for them in the upper piece or other meansadapted to the purpose; and in the last case, to strengthen and furthercontrol the connection, we extend the upper plates inward, as at b, withan orifice for the studs, so that the extension shall pass, between andbe held by the middle pieces when the mouth is closed.

Figs. 12 and 13 represent the form denominated the Octagon Inconstructing the mouth of this form we take eight pieces a a a ot asimilar length, which form, when closed, a star. These pieces are to behinged so as to move only in one plane and admit of this adaptation.

As a mode of fastening the mouth-piece when closed, an iron plate orhasp is used. Inv this are holes fitting four metal plates, whichproject above the top, and which are attached near the middle of theclosed mouthpiece to the inner sides of the four pieces, which form twoopposite arms ot' the star. To one of those pieces the hasp i is hinged.Through the two projections farthest from the hinge a hole immediatelyabove the hasp,when

in its place, furnishes the means of securing by a padlock. Thisarrangement will be rendered clear by the drawings; but other modes offastening might be adopted; A mouthpiece formed according to this m'odemay be attached to the side of a cylindrical bag by means ofraband offlexible materiaL The widthbetween the mouth-piece andbag should beequal to the length of one of the pieces composing the star, and thehole in the bag may be a square equal on each side to two of tac-t withthe bag when closed.

We have thus described a variety of modi.- fications of ourmouth-,pieces for bags or various descriptions, fully, as we believe,illustrating the nature of our invention, and it would be easy toexhibit others; but we do not think. that by so doing we should renderour intention more clear than we have already done.

We now declarethat what We claim as our invention, and vdesire to secureby Letters Patent, is T- The making or' such mouth-pieces so that theyshall consist of three or more sides and be so formed and arranged uponthe principle and in the manner herein shown that two or more of thesides which must be intleXible shall confine the remainder by a singlefastening, the flexible portions when used being embraced'and confinedbetween other portions- .which are inflexible, in the manner hereinshown.

JAMES SELLERS. ABM. L.y PENNooK.

Witnesses:

THOMAS A. WRIGHT, y SAMUEL HUTCHINsoN.

